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Basic Word Order

The sentence order is different from English. In English we use Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) but in Japanese it is usually Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) - observe:

(ENGLISH) S V O
Cats eat mice.

(JAPANESE) S O V
ねこはネズミをたべます。
neko wa nezumi o tabemasu.

Don't worry! It isn't as bad as it seems. You will get used to it.

です DESU

Desu is a copula - a grammatical form that can act like to be (You know - is, are, am...) in English in the sense of explaining who or what something / one is or equating one thing with another. Let's take a look:

ゾウは大きいです。

zou wa ookii desu.

Elephants are large.

これはねこです。

kore wa neko desu.

This is a cat.

Most of the time you want to use the to be verb you will use desu. Later we will learn other forms to show existence.

MAIN POINTS:

is, are, am

always at the end

In the present tense the final 'u' is usually devoiced, sounding a little like "dess" HEAR IT! WAV 11 k

Two Basic verb forms ～dictionary、～ます

There are many ways to change verbs, but here we will focus on 2 present tense forms "dictionary form" (also known as 'plain form') and "~masu form" (also known as 'polite form'). Note that these do not change the meaning of the verb but that the dictionary form is a more casual.

The dictionary form gets its name because it is what is found in the dictionary. Dictionary form verbs ends in -u (many end in -ru). ~Masu form verbs are so called because they always end in -masu in the present tense.

The way to transform between dictionary form and ~masu form depends on whether you are dealing with a godan verb or an ichidan verb.

Godan verb dictionary vs ~masu

Final 'u' (when written in romaji) is changed to 'i' and 'masu' added.

(To walk) 歩く aruku -> 歩きます arukimasu.

Ichidan verb dictionary vs ~masu

Final 'ru' is removed and 'masu' added.

(To eat) 食べる taberu -> 食べます tabemasu.

All ichidan verbs end in 'iru' or 'eru' when written in romaji but not all verbs ending in 'iru' or 'eru' are ichidan verbs.

(To run) 走る hashiru (Ends in 'iru' but is a godan verb).

(To go down e.g. a slope) 下りる oriru (Ends in 'iru' and is an ichidan verb).

Irregular verbs dictionary vs ~masu

する suru, 来る kuru and 行く are special cases. They are among the irregular verbs in Japanese (at this level the only irregular verbs you will encounter).

The ~masu form of する suru is します shimasu.

The ~masu form of くる kuru is きます kimasu

The ~masu form of いく iku is いきます ikimasu

The copula desu

です desu is the '~masu' form. That sounds odd because there is no ~masu in desu, so instead I'll say です desu is the polite form. The plain form of the copula is だ da. There are nuances to the use of だ that don't apply to other plain forms but those will be dealt with later. For now ...

Making questions か

Making questions in Japanese is easy! -- REALLY! Usually you can change a statement into a question by just adding a か ka to the end!

アメリカ人です。
amerikajin desu.
(I am) American.

アメリカ人ですか。
amerikajin desu ka.
(Are you) an American?

MAIN POINTS

ka is added to the end of statements.
Word order is not changed as in English
In Japanese (see second example) the ? (Question mark) is not required (optional)
Just like in English, the last syllable goes up in intonation
In spoken Japanese sometimes the ka can be dropped if you have the upwards intonation at the end. But for now, let's stick to using ka

Question words

By mastering these question words, your conversational skills will be much stronger!

いつ itsu - when

いつきましたか。 itsu kimashita ka. When did you come?

どこ doko - where

どこからきましたか。 doko kara kimashita ka. Where did you come from?

どうして doushite - why

どうしてきましたか。 doushite kimashita ka. Why did you come?

なぜ naze - why

なぜ naze? Why? [used in the same way as doushite]

だれ dare - who

だれがきましたか。 dare ga kimashita ka. Who came?

And last, but certainly not least

何 nani - what

なにを買いましたか。nani o kaimashita ka. What did you buy?
You can do a lot more with 何, see later lessons.

MAIN POINTS:

Even with the question word a か ka is used. (Except in casual spoken Japanese).

The question word is at the beginning, but after the は wa if there is one.